The 2016 presidential campaign is critical for mitigating climate change and preventing the loss of human lives, both in the future and the present. With growing public awareness, environmental issues have become a central focus on the campaign trail. Now that these issues have been brought into the conversation, we all have a responsibility to vote for a better future, today.
Climate change is characterized by a set of changes in weather patterns, oceans, ice, snow and ecosystems due to human activities. In addition to harming the natural world, many of climate change’s negative effects put human lives at risk, such as extreme weather and rising sea levels. In turn, climate change is exacerbated by global warming, the rise in global temperature due to a sharp increase in greenhouse gases emissions to the atmosphere. The emissions are mostly carbon dioxide and methane gases that are by-products of fossil fuel combustion. For the sake of perspective, consider that the United States is the second-largest emitter of carbon dioxide globally.
Although climate change puts future lives at risks, lives are just as much in jeopardy today. We need to start addressing climate change as a social justice issue, not just an environmental one. Fossil fuel extraction and refinement sites are often placed near poor neighborhoods, which contain a disproportionately high percentage of people of color, women and indigenous peoples. Studies from both Northeastern University and Tufts University show a correlation between the percentage of the population that is non-white and the number of hazardous sites per square mile. These communities suffer from polluted air and water, resulting in higher rates of chronic disease and premature deaths. The fossil fuel industry is harming people now and will harm them in the future through the larger effects of climate change.
Young people have had an extraordinary impact on the discussion surrounding global warming and climate change. Hundreds of environmental groups and thousands of young people have gathered and mobilized to help create the future we’d like to see. Young people have challenged large corporations, demanding ethical treatment of workers and environmentally sound practices. Divest Dartmouth is one example, asking the College to withdraw its investments from 200 fossil fuel companies. COP21, the recent global environmental conference in Paris, saw a huge crowd of millennials. Momentum is building.
The 2016 presidential candidates have noticed this growing movement. Climate change is being talked about at an unprecedented level on the campaign trail with some candidates, such as Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, including clean energy plans as part of their main platforms. However, climate change has become a partisan issue, rather than the bipartisan one it should be. Climate change, directly or inadvertently, affects us all. While climate change can be approached in many ways, ultimately, the solution comes down to making clean energy cheaper, more equitable and sustainable so that humans can continue flourishing on this planet.
Now is the time to take this momentum to the national level. Despite the influence we have had in the environmental realm, historically, young people aged 18 to 29 have not had the greatest voter turnout. In the 2012 elections, 45 percent of millennials voted, down from 51 percent in 2008. For the midterm elections in 2014, only 19 percent voted, the lowest rate ever recorded. Millennials make up 16.8 percent of the population, and we need to make our voices heard. The primaries will define the issues for the federal election, and we should vote to make climate change an election issue.
We have the amazing opportunity, as young people, to make a real difference by electing a candidate who is resolute on their plans to fight climate change — and we have to hold them to it. New Hampshire has the first primary in the nation, and we set the tone.
Beyond voting for a candidate who will support efforts to combat climate change, it is important that we continue to excercise our right to vote and support senators and congressmen who seek to protect the climate and reduce global warming. Voting once is important. Voting again is imperative.
